Neither Mind Nor Brain

This book is an interdisciplinary theoretical effort to explain the mind-body problem. Conscious mind is the hard problem to be explained and is the utmost existential question for any scientific mind. Neither a reductionist identity theory nor a commonsense-religious dualism can answer the problem. Human cognitive system can have a natural explanation rather than a religious description. To reduce the mind as what the brain does is too premature and to separate the mind and brain as two independent realities is too trivial. The hypothesis of the book identifies the conscious mind with the emergent functionality of the human brain. And, this is definitely an approximate guess. This informed guess is a challenge to many previously established theories and is an invitation for further research. It demystifies the age old homunculus mind and does not explains it away. To elaborate the theme, the author has incorporated themes such as complex system dynamics, evolution, cosmology, thermodynamics, information and emergence. The philosophical discussion on the first three chapters govern as an intuitive background for the theoretical development in further chapters. It affirms that the mind and brain are neither two dichotomized substances nor are they one and same substance. Chapters from four to eight deal with various themes from natural science with respect to the theme of mind-brain. they involve system dynamics, cosmology, thermodynamics, evolutionary theory and information model. Last chapter assimilates the discussions of previous chapters to propose the key hypothesis of the book viz. mind-brain is the emergent functionality of the human brain which is the matter-energy-information complex system. The universe, which itself is a matter-energy-information system, at least in one occasion, becomes conscious of itself through humans.

The relationship between our living body and our soul, our mental expressions of life and our physical environment, are both classical topics for discussion and ones which currently present themselves as part of a truly exciting philosophical debate: are we today still able to speak of a “soul”? And what is meant by a (living) body (German: “Leib”)? Does our brain dictate what we will and do? Or do we have free will? Why are we the same people tomorrow that we were yesterday? Given the discoveries of the modern neural sciences, can human beings still be understood in the context of the unity of body and soul? Or should we rather define ourselves as mind-brain beings (German: Gehirn-Geist-Gestalten)? Marcus Knaup explores these questions and discusses the most relevant approaches and arguments concerning the (living) body-soul debate. His own approach to current chal-lenges presented by modern brain research emanates from his bringing together Aristotelian Hylomorphism and phenomenology of the living body (German: “Leibphänomenologie”).

Includes: American Institute of Christian Philosophy. Proceedings of the Institute.

Cloning, embryo research and genetic modification are three of the most controversial issues of our time. Is it ethical to use cloning as a means of reproduction? Are embryos people? Is there a difference between removing genetic disease and creating «designer babies»? This book will attempt to show that these and other problems are ultimately resolvable, given careful and unbiased application of established ethical principles, many of which underlie common morality. These principles, when applied to the problems of the new genetic technologies, form the basis of a new genetic morality. This book applies established principles of biomedical ethics to the new genetic technologies and examines the ethical implications of reproductive and therapeutic cloning, genetic modification and stem cell research from a deontological and a rule-utilitarian perspective. Finally, it seeks to establish what, if anything, is wrong with each of these practices, and why.

"What is the mind?" "What is the relationship between brain and mind?" These are common questions. But "What is the brain?" is a rare question in both the neurosciences and philosophy. The reason for this may lie in the brain itself: Is there a "brain problem"? In this fresh and innovative book, Georg Northoff demonstrates that there is in fact a "brain problem". He argues that our brain can only be understood when its empirical functions are directly related to the modes of acquiring knowledge, our epistemic abilities and inabilities. Drawing on the latest neuroscientific data and philosophical theories, he provides an empirical-epistemic definition of the brain. Northoff reveals the basic conceptual confusion about the relationship between mind and brain that has so obstinately been lingering in both neuroscience and philosophy. He subsequently develops an alternative framework where the integration of the brain within body and environment is central. This novel approach plunges the reader into the depths of our own brain. The "Philosophy of the Brain" that emerges opens the door to a fascinating world of new findings that explore the mind and its relationship to our very human brain. (Series A)

The Four Domains of Mental Illness presents an authentic and valid alternative to the DSM-5, which author René J. Muller argues has resulted in many patients being incorrectly diagnosed and wrongly medicated. Dr. Muller points out where the DSM-5 is mistaken and offers a guide to diagnosis based on the psychobiology of psychiatrist Adolf Meyer and the insights of existential philosophy and psychiatry. His model identifies the phenomena of the mental illnesses that clinicians most often see, which are characterized by identifying their structure, or partial structure. Using the FDMI approach, clinicians can grasp how each mental illness is an aberration of Martin Heidegger’s being-in-the-world.